My Other Cycle Touring Blogs

Sunday, 4 March 2012

We started out just after 8am and cycled the 6km to the
border.Here a large market has stall
holders from both sides of the border.Cambodian traders bring their wares on had carts, some are so large they
need a team of people to move them.We
don’t have room to carry anything else and as we will be back this way, we went
straight through to the crossing.

The first step is to get a stamp to show you have left
Thailand, they just check you haven’t overstayed and stamp your passport.You can then go through to the next area
where casinos and hotels dominate, here you buy the Cambodian visa, we got a 30
day tourist visa for 800baht.You need a
photo, fill in a simple form and pay your money.The room seemed half full of people waiting
but we walked in and waited no more than 2 minutes before we had our
visas.The officials seemed very
interested in our cycling, maybe this speeded up the process or maybe it just
broke up their day as for came outside to look at the bikes and chat.

So we thought we were done but no one more stop.These guys check your visa and do the finger
print and picture thing you get at most immigrations nowadays, somehow it seemed
out of place here.The officials outside
seemed to be taking wads of cash of random people walking by, I don’t know what
it was for but it seemed to go in his pocket!

So on the road again but this time riding on the right hand
side!The town on the Cambodian side is
similar to the town on the Thai side not surprisingly.Following the road for about 50km brings you
into Sisophon, the driving style on this side of the border is worse for
sure.Some scooters are so heavily loaded
you can’t even see the scooter.The most
random however were several scooters coming the other way with 3 large pigs on
the back, they were wrapped in what looked like a wooden corset and lay on
their backs.I figured they were dead
until I saw them wriggling!

So into the town, hotels are a little rough but ok, no
7/11 or Tescos but we had a good lunch and then dinner from the street stands.We took US$ out of the cash point at the
border so currently trying to get our heads around using all 3 currencies at
the same time.

Big spider

Cambodia

Wasn't expecting Casinos and hotels between borders!

Huge TV screens and hand carts

Not seen any westerners here, it is more of a place you pace
through or at most overnight.We will be
back here as this is where the highway 6 and 5 meet.We are going on the 6 tomorrow to Siem Reap
about 110km.Today the road has been in
good condition, 2 lanes with a shoulder, lets hope it stays that way.